Letters From Those
Impacted By
Philadelphia Church of God
Best of the
Letters from 2000
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Wife Getting Literature and Tapes from PCG and Restored Church of God: My wife has been getting literature from the Philadelphia Church of God and audio tapes from the Restored Church of God. She has also started sending them "as she says" her required tithe because "everything belongs to God." I have tried to reason with her about this hypocrisy, but she is influenced by her parent. She says this is what she believes and I will be punished for being so against God. However, I am not against God; it is this Armstrongism that I think is pure B.S. ... I am wondering if you have any suggestions or anything to help in this situation? Thanks. --Anonymous Read: If You Have a Loved One in a Deceptive, Exploitive Group? and Information on Restored Church of God (David C. Pack). PCG Member Living in Fear of God: Please give me whatever info you have on Gerald Flurry's church PCOG. My father is a member of this cult and WW church for almost 20 years now. He is destroying a 36 year marriage to my mother. He is living in such fear of God he doesn't know how to live anymore. The things he believes in now are so crazy some people think he has lost his mind. We got hold of a tape of one of his church sermons and the minister of his church said poor people in the ghetto should be put out of their misery. When we confronted my dad about this, he got rid of the tape and said we don't understand. My dad took a trip recently to meet with Flurry to talk about them and he would not meet with him. Do you know what is going on? We are praying that this will wake him up that he's been mind controlled. Thank you. Any info will help. --Anonymous Have to Be Careful What I Believe: HI, I don't know what to believe anymore and it's making me lose faith. I
consider myself to have a strong walk with God, but now I don't know what to
think. --Inquirer on PCG Beginning to Have My Eyes Opened: I am so glad to have found your web site. I've been searching the web for sites on Herbert W. Armstrong and or the Worldwide Church of God and or cults. You see I was an member of the WCG, PCG and RCG for a total of 18 years and only now am I beginning to have my eyes open to how truly evil these so called churches really are. I have much to say and many questions but the time is not right yet. ... Thanks for your help so very much. Yours truly, --Exiter Flurry Starts Building Project with Golden Shovel! Flurry is working with a golden (!!) shovel as a start of their building project on "Gods land" as they call it. There's a photograph on the front page of the "Philadelphia News" of Flurry standing on a carpet and in his hand is a shovel. Under the photograph one can read that the shovel is made of gold. You know that HWA often stated "God loves quality." Flurry has carefully listened to his example HWA. --Exiter Flurry Disfellowshipped Me: I attended the WCG and then the PCG. I wish only to discuss the governmental body of the PCG. I was disfellowshipped because of something someone else said. It's a long story, but I was never consulted or met with in anyway before being disfellowshipped, yet the church leaders talked several times in sermons about how they talked with members before taking this action. I do agree that the people who stayed believe they are following God's Government, not Flurry. But it did appear to me that Gerald Flurry was not following God's government. I was planning on leaving no matter what the church decided in my case. There was always a fine line that came between God's law and Flurry's. Gerald Flurry did cross that line several times in my view. --Disfellowshipped from PCG Second Thoughts About Joining PCG: Have just found some interesting info
via your web site and am wondering if it would be possible to get a copy of
the police report regarding Gerald Flurry. "HWA Had Figured it Out": A word of 20/20 hindsight: After January 8, 1972, HWA was proven to be a false prophet. All bets were off then! Can you believe I actually heard someone say from the pulpit (in response to the Scripture that says no man shall know the exact date and time of His return) that the reason that 1972 came and went with nothing was because HWA had "figured it out," and that God had to change His time frame, since the Bible says that no man would know. The same deification of the man continues in PCG. Boy did I send Flurry a scathing letter after I received a copy of his literature unsolicited! ... Thanks for giving me a place to get stuff off of my chest. ... Sincerely, --Tennessee Flurry's Literature is Lacking: I gained interest while living in California via the TV Series from the WWCG program "The World Tomorrow." I had already started to see little things I did not agree with while taking the Bible study course. When the program seemed to go off the air, and I began seeing strange answers to my letters to the WWCG, I just dropped them. One day a program came on TV about the The Key of David with Gerald Flurry. It at first was somewhat interesting in that they mentioned they had been associated with the WWCG and Armstrong. But I began seeing what appeared as "White Supremacist" attitudes and with some of their literature "lacking." I have just gone back to the only real book you can believe in, the Bible. I will have to admit that I stumbled on your information on the NET by accident concerning Armstrong and Flurry and am a bit shocked. I suppose I was gullible, but it was the first time anyone started actually answering my question about the Bible itself. I saw weaknesses in both groups, thank God, and mainly used my own judgment as to what I read. It seems strange that I was suspecting things about them but wanted to learn about the Bible and was just plain naïve. I have disposed of the literature already. ... I intend to pick up a copy of David Robinson's book and have mailed a request to the publisher already to see if any copies are left. My plan is this: I have a set of Bible Encyclopedias, a Bible dictionary, and my little half worn out street language Bible, and that's what I am sticking too unless someone has a better idea. My original plan is correct: stop looking for someone else to get answers from and just pick up the Owners manual that came with us from the factory (Bible) and start through it bit by bit. Thanks for the help. I do appreciate it. --New Mexico Husband Left Doctoral Work Behind for PCG: Thank you for the exit and support
network. My husband left his Ph.D. program almost two years ago, so that he
might have the "privilege" of being God's chosen. PCG
"ministers" would not let him attend services until he left his
doctoral work behind. Innocent People Getting Kicked Out of PCG: Allow me to briefly introduce myself. I was a WCG and PCG member. I left the PCG three years ago, when it became obvious that amongst other things, innocent people were getting kicked out and Gerald Flurry was claiming he could convert the whole world by publishing Mystery of the Ages. I still am interested about what is going on in the PCG because I have many friends there, even if none of them will speak to me any longer. --Former PCG member "Buyer Beware" of PCG: As a former member of the PCG, I find the letters people write about the PCG to be very familiar. The leader of this group is only interested in power, prestige and money. Also he likes a lot of titles, one is found in John 1:21, the prophet mentioned in this verse refers to him, so says the leader of this group. People looking into this group should heed the old saying "buyer beware." In the future this group may be in the news for reasons not so good. The leaders in this group are very controlling and have plenty of deceived people to lead around like sheep to the slaughter. --Former PCG member (and glad of it) Flurry Building an "Imperial College" By the way, did you know that Gerald Flurry is building a college in Oklahoma? It will be called Imperial College. I read about him on your website and have watched him on TV from time to time. He comes on early Sunday mornings here. As you know, I just like to see what the spin-offs of the old WCG are doing. I can't imagine how he gets the money for the TV and for the College. Do you have any ideas? Do you think it was the same funding source that HWA had? --Virginia Reply: Read: OIU Newsletters. Update: In December 2005 PCG changed the name of Imperial College to Herbert W. Armstrong College. Getting Away From This Sick Cult: Hello; Thanks for all your hard work. I was a member of the Worldwide Church of God, Philadelphia Church of God, and Restored Church of God. What a ride. I haven't been there but I suppose it's like coming back from hell, getting away from this sick, sick cult--so much to say, but I am sure you've heard it all. I am looking for all the rotten history on Herbert Armstrong. I have a lot but I am sure there's so much more. Can you help? Thanks. --Former member of WCG, PCG and RCG Reply: See our section: Questioning Herbert W. Armstrong (covers background info). Negative Revelations About Flurry Disappointing: Thank you for sending me a copy of Gerald Flurry's Police Record. I have a feeling that Flurry was convicted, or he would have had his police record expunged. No one making their living in the public eye would want such a record for the public to view. I have known of the WCG and many of its off shoots since 1959 and never was able to get past some of their practices and, consequently, never joined. It is extremely disappointing to discover such negative revelations about this religious group/s. It must arouse extreme emotions of anger, disappointment, sadness to those who have committed themselves and their lives to these churches. Thanks for your help. -- Texas Gerald Flurry's Drunk Driving Record: In regards to Flurry's record, if one is arrested and found not guilty of a crime the arrest record remains unless the individual goes to the effort to get the record expunged (I believe is the term). However, when one cannot stand up straight, has difficulty determining a drivers license from a twenty dollar bill, fails the three sobriety onsite tests, and blows a .10 or greater on the breathalyzer, that individual is probably drunker than a hoot owl. You know the saying, "if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck..." His alcohol test was not attached as indicated in the police report, but that is not important to me at this point. If this were a more serious crime there would have been enough information for a grand jury to indict him. (I served on the grand jury in Jefferson County, CO for 6 months.) Convictions are a different matter. Consider the infamous O. J. trial. A good lawyer can convince a dumb jury that the police were drunk. There is a member of the Philadelphia Church of God that calls me from time to time and I am going to send him some of these site address that are available to see what his response will be. I had no idea that all of these terrible events permeated the WCG and all of its disgruntled branches until I typed "Gerald Flurry" into the MS Internet Explorer a month or so ago. What a surprise. I remember the problems with Garner Ted in the mid 1970's. That was a major disappointment and I simply put religion aside for a few decades. I always had a problem with the WCG's restrictions on attendance to their church. I never went. They would not let me attend. When I questioned them, they would hedge around with vague answers and reasons. I have attended the PCG meetings held for the public, not church. I have no idea where their church is located. When I went around and talked to some of the members at this public meeting I found them to be a little unsure of themselves except for the leadership. Subordinate members would refer me to the "experts" for sensitive issues. They had rented a large high school auditorium and only 15 or 20 people showed up. They later rented a significantly smaller facility capable of holding 25 to 30 people, and only 7 or 8 showed up. Much of the audience consisted of relatives of the speakers. Now that I look back, PCG probably held these public meetings to enlist new members to obtain additional money. I assume they are hurting financially as they have canceled their Houston UHF TV program which was aired every Sunday. I wonder how people are handling their lives after all of these impacts to their basic beliefs. I never have met anyone that attended any of the churches, other than the "recruiters" of course, so I really appreciate having discovered your web site. Although I never joined the church, its teachings did have a profound effect on my life, both good and bad. Their doctrines tended to implant a doomsday outlook for the long term, in the minds of the listeners, and that is damaging to one's long term personal planning. People like you are doing a valuable service for those really looking into the background of these organizations. I wish this web site had been around in the 1960's. Frankly, I do not know what direction I am going to go in from here. I do not know where to start. Many thanks for your help. --D.A. Need Help Getting Brother Out of PCG: Can you help me get my brother out of the PCG? They are turning him against his family. I was nearly taken in by them but had a lucky escape. They are bleeding him dry of money and want to know where every penny he has goes to or how he is spending it. I feel so sorry for him. How can I get him to see sense? They even preformed an illegal marriage ceremony and now he has a partner that is bleeding him dry too. It's getting desperate. He thinks that any thing good that happens is because he has tithed more and anything bad that happens is because of his evilness and he hasn't been praying enough. Every three months he gets very drunk and phones me to ask for help but he is in London many miles away, and the church gets there before me and tells him to give more money and pray more and this will keep him in the church or they will throw him out. He sounds desperate and often threatens suicide but then he is all mixed up about his eternal life. Please help. What can I do to get him out and away from these maniacs. Yours Sincerely, -- Scotland Reply: Read: If You Have a Loved One in a Deceptive, Exploitive Group Flurry Once Said "No time to build a college" Concerning the "Imperial College" that Gerald Flurry is building. I remember Flurry telling members that there was "no time to build a college." That was back in `95 or `96. --N.C. Armstrongism in the Manifestation of Gerald Flurry: Dear Michael, Flurry Looked Like a Drunken Bum: What an amazing web site! I've spent all night reading, reading, reading, and I've just begun. I wanted to see what you had to say about Gerald Flurry--I knew him in 1973-1974 when he visited me a couple times when I lived in CA in1979-1980, as my pastor in WA in 1987 when I stopped by to visit him in his home in Edmond, OK (both he and his wife had changed so much from 1980), and in 1994 when I wrote him a letter telling him what a bum he was. (I didn't know he was a drunken bum, but I told him he looked like one on his TV program a pal had taped for me. <grin>) I also bawled him out for getting his daughter to steal for him 20,000 addresses of "Armstrongites" from WCG's computer files. No wonder Gerry won't come down to the lobby of his headquarters to say hello to me! Twice he's been "too busy" so the last time I stopped by, 1998, I hollered real loud so all his workers could hear, "Tell Gerry I just stopped by to give him a big hug!" IMHO you present your views in very balanced tones. I appreciate your way of presenting the issues. Would you please send me three tapes? ... Thank you. --Arkansas Common Sense Told Me PCG Ministers Were Dead Wrong: I am leaving the Philadelphia Church of God. I have been a member for over 10 years. I submitted to government even when common sense told me the ministers were dead wrong, because I was taught not to argue with a minister or question them. I went along with the new revelation, even when it didn't make any sense. Gerald Flurry is proclaiming now that he has had revelation that starting on May 5, 2001 we are in the "last hour." --Anonymous PCG Member Tormented With Thoughts of Tribulation: Hi to you all and thanks for
the work that you do. Flurry is a Crazy Maniac: Flurry is a crazy maniac. I am truly anticipating reading about another mass suicide in the papers someday. He's readying those people for a massacre. He isn't just lying to them for money and power. I think he sounds like he's off the deep end. He's nuts and he's going to take some people down with him when he hits the bottom. There's the concentration camp. Right there!! --Anonymous survivor of Armstrongism I Used to Be Scared of the Old Testament: I didn't realize that Jesus (as the
pre-incarnate Christ) was in the Old Testament. Dr. Vernon McGee makes
much more sense than Flurry. It is so strange how we can get diverted by
doctrine that sounds so true. Anyway, I just want to let you know that
this set of tapes you mailed was special. I learned so much. I was
always scared of the Old Testament but now I can see that Jesus is in
the O.T., too, so there is no need to be scared. Doc McGee makes
so much clear sense with no deceit! --Survivor of PCG cult |